Interactive services such as Web- or Internet-based applications experience loads that vary. Typically, systems that manage interactive services statically assign or provision resources to those interactive services based on worst-case load or use scenarios. For example, an interactive service management system provisions enough resources to an interactive service to meet or satisfy a performance metric for that interactive service under a peak load. Because interactive services frequently operate under loads that are less than their respective peak loads, such interactive services are often over-provisioned. This can lead to under-utilization of the resources allocated to interactive services and, as a result, wasted expenditures on the under-utilized resources.
Alternatively, some systems that manage interactive services dynamically provision resources to those interactive services based on a static criterion such as a response time. Such systems provision, for example, additional resources to interactive services to allow the interactive services to meet the static criterion. Such systems can also result in under-utilization of the resources allocated to interactive services as the static criterion may not accurately reflect a performance or quality that is useful to clients of the interactive services.